Yes We Have No Squibs

   No squibs today, my muse has gone away. Thankfully, today is the anniversary in 1620 of the Speedwell's departure from the Netherlands on her way to America with a load of Pilgrims, so I have another fascinating subject to blather on about.

   These Pilgrims, or Separatists as they called themselves, had moved to the Netherlands 12 years earlier to escape persecution back home in England. They felt the established Church of England was still too Catholic and they were getting thrown in jail for saying so. The Netherlands was a tolerant country, but the Pilgrims saw no future for themselves there so decided to emigrate to Virginia

   They travelled to England and joined several of their co-religionists who were waiting for them aboard the Mayflower. They started out for America but the Speedwell sprung a leak and both ships returned to England for repairs. They set out a second time and again the Speedwell started leaking. Both ships returned to England and the Pilgrims aboard Speedwell transferred to the Mayflower. Of the 102 passengers, only 37 were Pilgrims. The rest were "Adventurers," looking to improve their lives in the New World. There was also a crew of 25-30 sailors and officers.

   So these 102 passengers were crammed into a space the size of a volleyball court. The passengers had been aboard the ships during all the back and forthing with the Speedwell. Once they got going they had 66 days at sea ahead of them. They were a couple of months behind schedule and were now heading into the season of gales in the North Atlantic. The Mayflower had spent most of her career transporting cloth and wine between France and England. This was her first trans-Atlantic trip.

   A tremendous storm hit the Mayflower in the middle of the Atlantic. The sails were furled as the ship tried to ride out the storm. One man died during the storm. A baby was born and was named Oceanus. The storm tossed the ship every which way until the main beam began to crack. This was bad. Even the crew and the Adventurers joined the Pilgrims in prayer. Then one the Pilgrims remembered the heavy jackscrew he had bought back in the Netherlands. Everyone had made fun of him at the time, but he figured it would come in handy for building houses. Now they wrestled the thing into position and it saved the beam and the ship.

   Interesting side note: As I was strolling one time with Teresa through the little fishing town of Newlyn in Cornwall, England, I noticed a small plaque that said that the Mayflower's last stop may have been here in Newlyn and not in Plymouth as everyone thought. Back in the 1960s a historian found evidence that because of a cholera outbreak in Plymouth, the Mayflower would not have taken on water in Plymouth, but over in Newlyn. The historian died in 1989 and his evidence was lost when his home burned. But he told his son he was sure he was right, and he was from Plymouth himself.

   One more side note: The Pilgrims never reached their intended destination of Virginia where there was an established colony. Because of the storms, the captain changed their destination to New York. Even then, the storms forced them to the tip of Cape Cod. There was no water at the tip, so they sailed over to Plymouth. The local Indians might have opposed their landing, but the local Indians had been wiped out by smallpox. The Pilgrims made use of the Indian's abandoned food caches. The few remaining Indians adopted the Pilgrims as allies against the more powerful neighboring tribes. I shudder to think what would have happened if the Pilgrims had landed in New York. The Big Apple would have eaten them alive.

   Wait. A couple of squibs just popped up:

Take pride in your gold medal, but remember your betters who couldn't make it to the competition that day.

If everyone in the world competed in the Olympics, it's sobering for me to realize that a solid three billion people would finish ahead of me in every single event. Well, maybe not in Team Tiddlywinks.